Front row at the Gosnell horror show

posted at 8:01 am on April 15, 2013 by Ed Morrissey

Documentarian Phelim McAleer and his wife recently produced the film FrackNation, which presented the largely unreported truth about hydraulic fracturing — that it’s safe, it’s tremendously useful, and the horror stories told by its opponents are mostly fantasy. Phelim stumbled across another largely unreported story about areal horror, and my friend offered to tell it to Hot Air readers today.

Front Row at the Gosnell Horror Show
By Phelim McAleer

So there I was in Philadelphia with a few free days during the recent PA tour of my documentary FrackNation.

What to do with the free time? Friends made suggestions. But from the moment I was invited on the PA tour I knew that as a reporter and news junkie there was only one place to spend my downtime.

It was, of course, the Kermit Gosnell murder trial. I say “of course” because it would be reasonable to assume that most Americans know some of the details of a trial where a doctor is charged with murdering seven children and patients in his clinic.

But in reality most Americans know nothing about the case. When I mentioned on Facebook where I was going the reaction was mostly bewilderment and then horror as they learned the details. Then they were angry that they knew so little about the case. But more on that later.

Philadelphia Criminal Justice Center is very much like all courthouses I’ve covered as a reporter in the past 20 years. The defendants hang around smoking, admiring each others’ tattoos, a few mothers and girlfriends look anxious beside men who are doing their best not to look anxious. And the lawyers walk past, beautifully dressed, talking loudly to their colleagues but in a way that seems designed to impress others several feet away.

And it is busy–very, very busy. People are walking everywhere and milling around. The elevators are so jammed I learned pretty quickly to take the stairs or be trapped in a slow moving box that takes forever.

But make your way up to room 304 and the busyness stops. There’s a single security guard sitting in a chair with a large stack of newspapers. She has plenty of time to chat as you walk through the metal detector.

Inside the courtroom is lopsided. Behind a barrier are the court officials, the jury, the defendant, the lawyers. There is activity as they prepare. Kermit Gosnell seems to be constantly making notes and sharing them with his lawyer. The public side of the courtroom is practically empty and really, really quiet. There are several rows set aside for media. There are just three local reporters. They are outnumbered by a group of pro-life activists.

Then the evidence starts. I used to be a crime reporter and I know that trials have ebbs and flows. And that sometimes you can have the “boring but necessary procedural bits” that are so boring to sit through and impossible to report.

But the Gosnell trial turned this model on its head. Even the boring medical evidence was horrific, and like every reporter when my brain registered “horrific,” I also was thinking “wow, what a great story.” (I think that is why so many journalists get killed in war zones; their brains are different, always thinking about great stories. They don’t see the danger coming until it hits them–sometimes quite literally).

Take for example the evidence of Dr. Fredrick Hellman, the chief medical examiner of Delaware County who became involved when one of Gosnell’s patients gave birth to a dead fetus at a local hospital. Dr. Hellman has a reassuring competent air and his list of qualifications went on and on; you could feel the energy being sucked out of the room as he listed what he had done and where he had worked.

His evidence was similarly lengthy and exhaustive. He was frequently asked to spell the names of drugs and spell out what he meant as his evidence became more and more technical. He described the night in September 2007 when he investigated the remains of Baby Girl Manning who had presented as “a fetal death” at Crozier Chester Hospital.

He talked about charts and measurements and assumptions, and then the District Attorney, in a question that seemed calculated to send the jury to sleep, asked:
“What did you observe externally about this baby of pathological significance?”

Dr. Hellman replied: “I found what appeared to be a pretty well formed baby.”

Suddenly the energy came back into the room. And that is what the case is about. Well formed babies that Dr. Gosnell is alleged to have removed from women by inducing delivery or “precipitating,” as he called it. Then, because they were alive and breathing, he or members of his staff would plunge scissors into the back of the neck and sever the spinal cord. He is charged with doing this seven times, but it is thought he may have done it to hundreds of infants.

The evidence that kept emerging the few days I was there is jaw dropping and poignant. Dr. Hellman explained all the charts that medical professionals have to work out the age of a fetus. They measure the length and width of the baby, they weigh organs, and they compare them to charts of previous autopsies of babies whose age they knew. Dr. Hellman said that based on the charts, he conservatively estimated Baby Girl Manning was between 28- and 29-weeks-old.

He was asked about another incident where a member of staff described an “aborted fetus” as being 18 inches to a foot long. Dr. Hellman was asked to estimate the child’s age given those dimensions. He replied simply that such a baby would be “off the charts.” In other words it was a fully formed baby whose delivery was engineered so that Dr. Gosnell could push a pair of scissors into its neck to snip its spinal cord.

Then we heard from Ashley Baldwin who started to work at the clinic when she was 15.

A murder trial is a funny place for those who attend. It is a closed world, and it is often set in a strange world. In order to really understand what is happening the lawyers, journalists, and jury have to get to know strange people and often stranger places. And like all humans as we get to see more and more about these worlds and people we develop favorites.

And so it seemed to be with the Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore. She obviously has a soft spot for Ms Baldwin. In fact she said as much in her opening remarks.

“Ashley Baldwin is probably my favorite person in this whole case. Ashley Baldwin was 15 when she was working at this facility. Ashley had a work roster from her high school. She was working on the front desk, collecting money, making appointments, that kind of stuff. Smart girl. So smart she could figure things out at 15-years-old. Then something happened and her job morphed into working in the recovery room, doing ultrasounds, drawing blood, giving medication. 15-years-old,” she explained to the jury.

Ms Baldwin was smart, but so were lots of people at the clinic. But what made her a favorite of Ms Pescatore was that despite not being qualified to dispense drugs or assist in the procedures, she seemed to care more than most about the welfare of the patients. In a clinic where, according to investigators, blood and unsterilized equipment was everywhere and murder was a daily occurrence, Ms Baldwin in this perverse universe tried hard to minimize the harm.

She may not have known what exactly was in the drugs she administered but she color coded them to ensure that she and the staff would know what they had given to whom.

In the Women’s Medical Center that was enough to mark you as caring.

Ms Baldwin is now 20 years old. She looks unremarkable and at first sounds unremarkable but then you realise she is a very focussed young woman. You could see her concentrate as she tried to remeber the details of her career at the Women’s medical center. She helped “precipitate” many births–so many she can’t remember the number. Often they were delivered in the toilet. On at least five occasions the babies were moving after being “precipitated.” One was crying. She said it cried just like her own baby “when she first had him.”

She helpfully explained that her son was six pounds when he was born and the baby that was “precipitated” in the toilet was a similar size.

She explained it “looked like a regular baby” and that “there was hair all over it.”

Then there was another baby so big that even Dr. Gosnell joked that it was old enough it could have “walked him home.”

It Is difficult to write about the Kermit Gosnell trial. Almost all the evidence is horrific. As a reporter I want to make this a 5,000 word article but the details are tiring; it is actually hard to believe the moral universe that existed behind the doors of the Women’s Medical Center. And then I remember the hands and feet.

I watch a lot of detective dramas on TV; they tend to focus a lot on serial killers. And often the detectives talk about serial killers taking trophies of their victims. Now I’m sure that not all serial killers take trophies. It makes for a few great gruesome scenes in a TV series, so all TV serial killers seem to collect mementos from their victims. In reality those who take trophies often take scarves, driver’s licenses, or pieces of jewelry.

But it seems that Dr. Kermit Gosnell collected babies’ hands and feet. And he kept them in jars in the kitchen of his clinic. And the jars were transparent. So when you reached up for the coffee as you heated up your panini during lunch, you would have to brush past around 20 jars with the tiny severed hands and feet stored there.

Ms Baldwin would ask Dr. Gosnell about the jars. He told her they were for research, but she never saw any researchers collect them.

I could go on and on and on. And I only spent a few days at the trial. Every minute seemed to throw up new horrors. As a reporter, listening to such evidence was the easy part. Sitting at home now and reflecting on it is more difficult. Who are these people? What kind of world do they live in?

But the case also has a sense of unreality because there has been almost no media coverage of the evidence. There has been almost no analysis or comment regarding a man and his staff who may have taken part in one of the largest mass murders in American history. I find myself questioning my notes because there are almost no other reports verifying what I am now writing. It seems that if a mass murder occurs and no one reports on it it starts to appear as if it never really happened.

This is probably evidence of media bias; journalists who are mostly pro-choice/pro-abortion are reluctant to cover stories that show abortionists in a bad light and would make the case for tighter regulation. There can be no other reason. I say this not to make political points but to simply point out reality.

I have covered the troubles in Northern Ireland and child trafficking in Indonesia and Romania. I have never come across a more sensational case. There is plenty of meat for the tabloid or the “serious” journalist. That they have mostly ignored it is part of the reason their industry is in decline.

I love the traditional media. I spent most of my career working for newspapers or trying to get my documentaries reviewed by them or by establishment TV channels.

But I’m falling out of love with them as they continually let me down. The Kermit Gosnell trial will last another five weeks or so. The media has that time to show they are serious about their profession or if they want to just manage their own decline.

Wait till the Zimmerman trial gets underway. The media will be all over it like white on rice (pun intended). I wonder if they’ll call him ‘white Hispanic’ as he has already been described in the NY Times.

Del Dolemonte on April 15, 2013 at 9:11 AM
These trolls must be here on assignment. I can’t imagine why a normal person would persist in coming to a website that makes them uncomfortable, let alone one where no one likes them.

CurtZHP on April 15, 2013 at 9:38 AM

A troll once confided that a game they play is to simply drop one outlandish comment and count how many responses they get back.

The Gosnell trial reveals an appalling Contempt for Life that results in a depraved skepticism or indifference to any moral standard.

This cynicism spreads like a cancer throughout our society.

“All this is causing a profound change in the way in which life and relationships between people are considered. The fact that legislation in many countries, perhaps even departing from basic principles of their Constitutions, has determined not to punish these practices against life, and even to make them altogether legal, is both a disturbing symptom and a significant cause of grave moral decline. Choices once unanimously considered criminal and rejected by the common moral sense are gradually becoming socially acceptable. Even certain sectors of the medical profession, which by its calling is directed to the defense and care of human life, are increasingly willing to carry out these acts against the person. In this way the very nature of the medical profession is distorted and contradicted, and the dignity of those who practice it is degraded. In such a cultural and legislative situation, the serious demographic, social and family problems which weigh upon many of the world’s peoples and which require responsible and effective attention from national and international bodies, are left open to false and deceptive solutions, opposed to the truth and the good of persons and nations.

The end result of this is tragic: not only is the fact of the destruction of so many human lives still to be born or in their final stage extremely grave and disturbing, but no less grave and disturbing is the fact that conscience itself, darkened as it were by such widespread conditioning, is finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish between good and evil in what concerns the basic value of human life…”

Wait till the Zimmerman trial gets underway. The media will be all over it like white on rice (pun intended). I wonder if they’ll call him ‘white Hispanic’ as he has already been described in the NY Times.

Liam on April 15, 2013 at 9:40 AM

O/T:

If I’m Zimmerman’s defense attorney, I bring to light the fact that Trayvon had ingredients for Lean/PurpleDrank when he got into that deadly scuffle with Zimmerman. Show the jury that Trayvon might have actually had a reason to attack Zimmerman, and the case falls apart.

Because to admit otherwise ruins their entire existence as a political movement and by extension, the entire Democrat party.

They must not be allowed to think or reflect at all on their life, they must not be allowed to realize that their lives are their own and their responsibility to do with as they wish, they must not be allowed to think they can get ahead via any other method than dependence on the government. They are required to accept those hoary old Left aphorisms about identity politics, even if they privately have doubts about them. No individuality allowed, you see. No straying off the mental plantation, ever.

I wish for the day that every citizen wakes up to the realization that the Left has snookered and bamboozled generations with their lies and preying on people’s insecurities and responds with a tidal wave of anger that destroys them for all time. I wish. I doubt that it will happen in my lifetime, but I wish.

If I’m Zimmerman’s defense attorney, I bring to light the fact that Trayvon had ingredients for Lean/PurpleDrank when he got into that deadly scuffle with Zimmerman. Show the jury that Trayvon might have actually had a reason to attack Zimmerman, and the case falls apart.

gryphon202 on April 15, 2013 at 9:43 AM

There is an interesting comparison here.

The media opted to ignore the Gosnell trial.

The media opted to cover the Martin shooting with malice. The only pictures shown were years old. They ignored the fact that Martin had been suspended from school for having pot and burglary tools. They didn’t report about Martin’s social media account and the unprintable name he called himself or the content of his comments. All a far different Trayvon Martin than the one depicted by his parents lawyer and the race industry. George Zimmerman got Nifonged by the prosecutor because she was more afraid of a race riot than she was about putting somebody on trial.

So which is worse? The way the media ignored the Gosnell trial or the way they whipped up racial tensions in the Martin shooting by deliberately misreporting the facts?

So which is worse? The way the media ignored the Gosnell trial or the way they whipped up racial tensions in the Martin shooting by deliberately misreporting the facts?

Happy Nomad on April 15, 2013 at 9:55 AM

Well I can tell you this much: if I’m the DA down there, I’d give serious thought to letting Zimmerman cop a lenient plea. The Dextrosphere has done a fair amount of reporting on prosecutorial misconduct viz-a-vis the Trayvon Martin case, and it could have a field day if Zimmerman ever actually did go to trial.

Plus the deliberate way NBC edited Zimmerman’s 911 call, and that a witness who first said Zimmerman acted in self defense while having his head repeatedly slammed into pavement by Martin changed her story when the racist angle started being pushed.

if I’m the DA down there, I’d give serious thought to letting Zimmerman cop a lenient plea. The Dextrosphere has done a fair amount of reporting on prosecutorial misconduct viz-a-vis the Trayvon Martin case, and it could have a field day if Zimmerman ever actually did go to trial.

gryphon202 on April 15, 2013 at 9:58 AM

If I were Zimmerman’s lawyer, I wouldn’t recommend taking a deal. The only reason there is a trail is because the special prosecutor arbitrarily decided to press charges after it became clear that a grand jury would not indict.

I expect there will be threats of riots if Zimmerman is acquitted.

Liam on April 15, 2013 at 10:01 AM

I expect there will be actual riots. The media has clearly made this all about a sweet young black kid gunned down by a ruthless white Hispanic. They have deliberately shown pictures from years before and left unreported the fact that the Trayvon Martin that was killed was a tattooed, gold tooth wearing, street thug. I’ve heard too many reports where the black community buys the lies being fed to them by the media. No amount of truth is going to change their preconcieved ideas.

I wish for the day that every citizen wakes up to the realization that the Left has snookered and bamboozled generations with their lies and preying on people’s insecurities and responds with a tidal wave of anger that destroys them for all time. I wish. I doubt that it will happen in my lifetime, but I wish.

PatriotGal2257 on April 15, 2013 at 9:44 AM

Obama is in a hurry to cement his personality cult & the Left is in a hurry to establish the New World Order…

When lazy politicians like the National Governors Association sign onto the federal program citizens need to hold them accountable and raise a ruckus.

“Will Estrada, the director of federal relations for the Home School Legal Defense Association, says classics are being abandoned in the standards of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

“We’ve started seeing what is in this Common Core curriculum, and it’s not good, Ginni,” the 29-year-old told The Daily Caller’s Ginni Thomas.

“I mean, you have the classics being abandoned for instead reading executive orders from President Obama. What is up with this? Why are we leaving ‘Grapes of Wrath’ and, you know, ’1984′ to instead read executive orders from the president.”

The Common Core State Standards Initiative was an effort initiated in 2009 by the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers to create national curriculum standards for K-12 education. Subsequently, the U.S. Department of Education incentivized the adoption of Common Core Standards through its Race to the Top program. To date, all but five states have adopted the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

Estrada says the Common Core curriculum allows for the teaching of a worldview which places the United Nations above the American Constitution.

“You know the worldview that’s being taught in the Common Core? It is the United Nations is better than our Constitution and our Declaration of Independence,” he said.

But what alarms him the most is that the federal government won’t simply stop with advocating for national curriculum standards…”

you’re trying to squeeze every sensationalistic ounce of juice out of this story aren’tcha?

partisan on April 15, 2013 at 8:40 AM

Sorry, Zippy, but in this story the word “sensationalistic” simply doesn’t apply, because all we are doing is directly citing the Grand Jury Report. Nothing “sensationalistic” or made up in that legal document at all, except for you Leftists who are uncomfortable at finally having some of the more gory details of your “religion” being exposed as barbaric.

No, “sensationalistic” is when the New York Times runs Page 1 stories 47 times (including for 32 consecutive days) about people being forced to put panties on their heads, solely to embarrass a Republican Administration.

Another example? “Sensationalistic” is when the Lead Anchor/Managing Editor of a national television network willingly airs a report that was based on forged documents, solely to swing a national Presidential election to the Democrat “candidate”.

To be clear, I’m not one to just ignore trolls. Responding to their turds often produces some absolute gems of wisdom. Quite a few of the comments on this thread made to nonparkingsigns are genius.

My point was that they often have no point. Then they get mad because you won’t take their comments seriously.

hawkdriver on April 15, 2013 at 10:12 AM

I’ve had mixed feelings about responding to them. I know they are here just to piss people off, and I could never understand the sort of personality disorder that must come into play to make someone frequent a site where no one likes them for the sole purpose of making sure no one likes them.

Lately, I’ve decided never to address them directly. If I have something to say, I’ll say it; but as a rule, I never engage a leftist directly. Their worn-out ideas are not worth the time.

At the same time, it’s sometimes fun to watch others slap them around. And sooner or later, one of them will pop a gasket and say something that gets them bounced out of here.

I have heard Glenn Beck’s and Michelle Malkin’s reports on Common Core and it simultaneously angers me and scares me. The truth of Common Core must be trumpeted and spread far and wide as much as possible.

I’ve heard too many reports where the black community buys the lies being fed to them by the media. No amount of truth is going to change their preconcieved ideas.

Happy Nomad on April 15, 2013 at 10:14 AM

This is the problem in a nutshell that we must find a way to confront.

Sorry, Zippy, but in this story the word “sensationalistic” simply doesn’t apply, because all we are doing is directly citing the Grand Jury Report.
Del Dolemonte on April 15, 2013 at 10:23 AM

And I also think many of the gruesome details in the Gr.Jury report aren’t being cited at all. I don’t know…I obviously haven’t read all the reports that are out there, but IMO, there are plenty of as yet untold, hard, cold ,brutal facts that need to be disclosed.
The public is entitled to the whole truth…every last bit of it.

I don’t think it’s unfair to call out the media for avoiding this story. I think the reaction to this is overblown – but not without merit.
It’s worth noting that Gosnell has been charged with 8 counts of murder and is being vigorously prosecuted.
It’s also worth noting that the much of the pro-life movement has traditionally argued their case against legal and safe abortion though gruesome imagery and rhetoric.
Do they view Gosnell as an aberration of abortion services and providers in this country or not?
I see that as primarily the reason for the confusion in how to cover this story.
They want the story covered, but in a very specific way.

Do they view Gosnell as an aberration of abortion services and providers in this country or not?
I see that as primarily the reason for the confusion in how to cover this story.
They want the story covered, but in a very specific way.

verbaluce on April 15, 2013 at 11:19 AM

Gosnell is an inconvenient truth in the midst of a media-produced narrative about the rarity of late-term abortions and the idea that what is being removed by a “procedure” is nothing but a lump of cells. The Gosnell case isn’t being ignored out of confusion in how to cover the story but because it doesn’t paint abortionists in the way the left’s agenda would have them be portrayed.

Do they view Gosnell as an aberration of abortion services and providers in this country or not?
I see that as primarily the reason for the confusion in how to cover this story.
They want the story covered, but in a very specific way.

verbaluce on April 15, 2013 at 11:19 AM

See the Delaware Planned Parenthood clinic closed last week.

Two former nurses at Planned Parenthood of Delaware told WPVI-TV in Philadelphia this month that conditions at the clinic there are dangerous. Jayne Mitchell-Werbrich, one of the former nurses, said: “It was just unsafe. I couldn’t tell you how ridiculously unsafe it was.”“They could be at risk of getting hepatitis, even AIDS,” added the other nurse, Joyce Vasikonis. Channel 6 reported that both nurses were stunned “by what they called a meat-market style of assembly-line abortions.” It noted that in Delaware, abortion clinics are not subject to routine inspections: “Planned Parenthood is essentially in charge of inspecting itself.” Will any national reporters follow up on Channel 6’s reporting?

As one of the liberal Democrat prosecutors in the Gosnell case said:

“How is it that we have more oversight in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania of women’s hair salons than we do over abortion clinics?”

Easy, because pro-aborts want NO limitations on abortions and they are afraid that regulation would lead to them.

Gosnell is an inconvenient truth in the midst of a media-produced narrative about the rarity of late-term abortions and the idea that what is being removed by a “procedure” is nothing but a lump of cells. The Gosnell case isn’t being ignored out of confusion in how to cover the story but because it doesn’t paint abortionists in the way the left’s agenda would have them be portrayed.

Happy Nomad on April 15, 2013 at 11:32 AM

Well, you’re proving my point – with the line “it doesn’t paint abortionists”.
He is not being charged with abortion.
He’s been charged with murder. This is what I meant by anti-safe&legal abortion crowd’s agenda not being serviced by covering it as a murder trail.

So which is worse? The way the media ignored the Gosnell trial or the way they whipped up racial tensions in the Martin shooting by deliberately misreporting the facts?

Happy Nomad on April 15, 2013 at 9:55 AM

They are both horrible, but there is a difference: There is NO grand jury report in the Zimmerman case, which is why it has been easy for NBC and the NYT, among others, to doctor evidence. In Gosnell, there was a finding by members of the community that specific crimes had been committed and the defendants should be tried. The evidence was laid out clearly and concisely and included photographs and testimony under oath.

Of course, if you are NBC or the NYT, it is more fun to doctor evidence in a way that drives your narrative.

Gosnell is the rule, not the exception, to the callous, dehumanizing “care” that mothers and their babies receive in abortion mills.

I recently heard Abby Johnson speak about her eight years as director of a major Planned Parenthood abortion mill in Texas. Now a dedicated pro-lifer, she told about the abortionist who, while using ultrasound to view the doomed baby, would move the cannula tube closer and closer, and then turn on the suction machine.

As the suction tore the tiny baby to pieces and sucked it up the tube, the abortionist would chortle,

“Beam me up, Scotty!”

Abby Johnson’s change of heart came when she saw a 13-week unborn baby flail arms and legs in an attempt to move away from the tube. after the device touched the skin.

She told our audience that, at the moment she saw the baby struggling, she finally realized the humanity of unborn babies. She had always admitted that they were babies, but had never understood their humanity.

Over the years, she had aborted two of her own babies. She has since repented of their deaths and her work at Planned Parenthood, and has dedicated herself to exposing the horrors of that organization. God bless her. Go hear her, if you get the opportunity.

Read it again. She’s saying nothing about Gosnell, she’s saying that every time she does an abortion, she is saving the life of the mother. I have no idea what she actually means.

Tomblvd on April 15, 2013 at 9:14 AM

She is fulfilling the prophecy Paul wrote when he sent his first letter to Timothy.

1 “… in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron…”

I too am concerned that babies are being murdered in unsanitary facilities by unqualified murderers. What we need are laws to ensure that only the most competent murderers can operate an abortion facility, and that when a baby is murdered with a scissors that the scissors have been well sterilized.

I mean imagine how awful it would be for a baby to have its spine severed only for it to get an infection from dirty scissors.

He is not being charged with abortion.
He’s been charged with murder. This is what I meant by anti-safe&legal abortion crowd’s agenda not being serviced by covering it as a murder trail.

verbaluce on April 15, 2013 at 11:42 AM

He’s been charged with both murder and illegally performing abortions on foetuses over 24 weeks, among others including, without limitation, drug delivery resulting in the death, conspiracy to commit murder, criminal solicitation, infanticide, felony drug violations of the Control Substances Act, hindering prosecution, obstruction of justice, tampering with evidence, violations of the Abortion Control Act and perjury.

The GJ recommended that he be charged with 33 counts of performing illegal abortions and conspiracy to perform abortions beyond 24 weeks.

If indeed what you’re advocating for is better oversight to ensure that these services are offered by qualified professionals in safe environments, sure.
Or does not not fully cover your concerns?

verbaluce on April 15, 2013 at 11:45 AM

I am against abortion, but I long ago resigned myself to the fact that, like the poor, it will always be with us. Nevertheless, there should be no reason why abortion clinics are held to lower standards that other medical facilities are.

I also believe that reporting requirements should be strengthened. Gosnell had been sued 46 times in 32 years. Now, as an attorney, I’ll be the first to admit that the fact that someone has been sued should not be taken as proof of his negligence; however, when a professional has that much smoke around him, there is usually a fire. In addition to 2 deaths, Gosnell perforated uteri and bowels, infected patients with STDs, caused young women to have to undergo hysterectomies, etc.

Despite what we might like to think, I very much doubt that Gosnell is alone in running this kind of abortion clinic.

Do they view Gosnell as an aberration of abortion services and providers in this country or not?
I see that as primarily the reason for the confusion in how to cover this story.
They want the story covered, but in a very specific way.

verbaluce on April 15, 2013 at 11:19 AM

Sorry, but you are a moron. A cold hearted one. The story is you. You, people like you and your apathy towards the unborn. The story is how did we get so far in this country that this shop of horrors fell under a major blackout by the media? How did we get so comfortable with the practice that we preferred to not cover it when it got out of hand rather than stepping back and seeing if we’d gone horrifically too far? The story is that there was no story.

And you think it’s a big secret we wish for change to come from this? I personally hope that if nothing else, this puts the spotlight squarely on the monstrous act of late-term abortions that are done for simple convenience. I’d love to see legislation that makes that procedure illegal except for where a mother’s life is in danger and for the process to have a requirement to make all efforts to deliver the child live. I’d love to see a federal law that makes it a crime to not aid a live born baby. Additionally, and it’ll never happen because you guys love your minority population control, but I’d also like to see the demographics displayed for all to see. Maybe then we’d have a real discussion about the motivations of the left.

I know you’re not paying attention and that as a infanticide supporter you’d like this to just go away. But, new information keeps coming out of the trial that makes the earlier details seem like children’s stories.

Ed, please do not slow down on the Gosnell Clinic murder reporting at all. The whole country, whole world needs to hear what this man did.

hawkdriver on April 15, 2013 at 8:45 AM

I’m late to the thread, and I’m sure this has been said already: I do not appreciate having this chunk of vomit lumped into any category I’m part of…

Response of the American Academy of Pediatrics to the Federal Born-Alive Infants Protection Act into law in 2002.

In March 2003, the AAP NRP Steering Committee issued an opinion regarding BAIPA’s effects on daily medical practice. The Committee stated that although the Act contained a “lot of rhetoric,” the “law does not proscribe medical care for newly born infants delivered at the limits of viability.” More specifically, the committee noted:

The debate regarding the efficacy of providing medical care to premature infants below a certain weight or gestational age is clearly not relevant in the context of this law…[BAIPA] should not in any way affect the approach that physicians currently follow with respect to the extremely premature infant. Physicians should discuss treatment options with parents, preferably before the birth of the infant.

The Committee essentially dismissed the intent and purpose of the law with its statements
and further noted.

…decisions about withholding or discontinuing medical treatment that is considered futile may be considered by the medical care providers in conjunction with the parents…Those newly born infants who are deemed appropriate to not resuscitate or to have medical support withdrawn should
be treated with dignity and respect, and provided with “comfort care” measures.

Thus, the medical community most affected by the law discounted BAIPA as symbolic, rather than substantive law. However, the Bush Administration soon began taking steps to promote BAIPA enforcement through EMTALA and CAPTA.

The law doesn’t even stand on it’s own. Under EMATALA and CAPTA, they investigate reports of non-compliance. I know of no legal proceeding except Gosnell where they took the laws seriously. Again, I’d love to see a federal law that makes it a crime to not aid a live born baby.

It applies. It does nothing. I’ll split the difference with you rather than splitting hairs and say I wish the AMA wasn’t it’s own oversight in laws pertaining to them. Or that BAIPA was amended to be more specific in the required application of care and had bigger teeth for punishment when not applied.

If the auto-industry had the power to say that laws requiring specific safety features be engineered into their product was “symbolic”. And if they then made public statements that compliance was not mandatory, we would consider that pretty weak law.

I’d be in favor of any measures genuinely targeted at that specific concern.

verbaluce on April 15, 2013 at 1:21 PM

If “targeting that specific concern” caused a collapse of the abortion industry, would you still be for it? Many otherwise good people persist in believing that Kermit Gosnell was some kind of “monster” when I personally believe he was just what he billed himself as: an abortionist. You may want to steel yourself for a revelation that you’re not ready for, if you really do believe that Gosnell and others like him should be shut down.

The right and religious right has never been been a player in reducing unintended or unwanted pregnancies. You paint/buy a picture of blood thirsty docs and reckless women who have abortion for ‘convenience’…when both are pure anomalies in the grand scheme of things.
Your argument is guided less by morality then by arrogant and misguided mean-spirited self-righteousness (as you demonstrate here).
And now you pat yourself on the back for your ‘morality’ and ‘intelligence’.
Sorry, I’m just not impressed.

I’d be in favor of any measures genuinely targeted at that specific concern.

verbaluce on April 15, 2013 at 1:21 PM

If “targeting that specific concern” caused a collapse of the abortion industry, would you still be for it? Many otherwise good people persist in believing that Kermit Gosnell was some kind of “monster” when I personally believe he was just what he billed himself as: an abortionist. You may want to steel yourself for a revelation that you’re not ready for, if you really do believe that Gosnell and others like him should be shut down.

gryphon202 on April 15, 2013 at 1:24 PM

You’re further illustrating and amplifying the point I’ve been making here.
You’re just more direct and honest about your motivations for more ‘coverage’ of this murder trial than most who are doing the complaining.

You’re further illustrating and amplifying the point I’ve been making here.
You’re just more direct and honest about your motivations for more ‘coverage’ of this murder trial than most who are doing the complaining.

verbaluce on April 15, 2013 at 1:45 PM

My desire for abortion to cease entirely is merely vindicated by the Gosnell grand jury report. The facts speak for themselves. But you didn’t answer my question. If shutting down every abortionist who operates like Gosnell did would mean the abortion industry would shut down piecemeal, would you still persist in believing that they should be prosecuted?

You’ll find no end to Christians getting bashed here for “sticking their nose into other’s moralities”. (Kind of hard to make a difference in teen pregnancy when half of you claim we have no say and the other half like you are outright calling for the age of consent to be lowered.) So please, don’t be a hypocrite.

But you’ll find no end to Christians “here” saying that we have fallen down by surrendering the narrative to you on the left.

As far as doing anything? Our church currently cares for three specific pregnant teens and supports a Pregnancy Crisis Center.

Proof that yours is rhetoric and ours is concern: You on the left, never, never even question the results of what you push for, while we on the right probably are our own worst enemies when it comes to self-emulation in analyzing where we think we’ve failed. Rationalization is a major part of your lives.

The right and religious right has never been been a player in reducing unintended or unwanted pregnancies.

Either you forgot to include the sarc tag, you are lying through your teeth, or have been stricken with alzheimer’s not to remember all the abstinence pushes… you know… the approach that actually prevents pregnancies. And you must never have heard of adoption, and the many charities set up to help poor mothers.

You paint/buy a picture of blood thirsty docs and reckless women who have abortion for ‘convenience’…when both are pure anomalies in the grand scheme of things.

Only if you ignore statistics. But I know math and logic is like sunlight to you vampires. Hmmm… vampires… that’s actually a good description of liberals… blood thirsty, evil to the core, with insane delusions of power…

Your argument is guided less by morality then by arrogant and misguided mean-spirited self-righteousness (as you demonstrate here).

Morality would indicate trying to save a life instead of destroy it for “convenience”. Your perception of “mean-spirited self-righteousness” is because we know the difference between a murderer and an abortion provider… there is none.

And now you pat yourself on the back for your ‘morality’ and ‘intelligence’.
Sorry, I’m just not impressed.

verbaluce on April 15, 2013 at 1:39 PM

No, you’re just an unimpressed vampire liberal that invades a conservative blog to defend the right to your “thirst”, even if it means the ending of someone else’s life.

But you didn’t answer my question. If shutting down every abortionist who operates like Gosnell did would mean the abortion industry would shut down piecemeal, would you still persist in believing that they should be prosecuted?

gryphon202 on April 15, 2013 at 1:51 PM

Your question isn’t too clear…perhaps for a reason…as perhaps you need to define ‘every abortionist who operates like Gosnell’ as you understand it.

Does this answer it for you?
I’d be in favor of prosecuting people who break the law.

hawkdriver on April 15, 2013 at 2:00 PM
I don’t think as little of your intelligence as you do of mine to think you didn’t understand I was talking about before they’re pregnant.

verbaluce on April 15, 2013 at 2:21 PM

And I addressed that.

hawkdriver on April 15, 2013 at 2:24 PM

I don’t see that you did.
And I don’t see that you can.
Unless you mean this rhetorical deflection?‘Kind of hard to make a difference in teen pregnancy when half of you claim we have no say and the other half like you are outright calling for the age of consent to be lowered’

But I applaud you and your efforts to offer some help to those who need it(albeit likely narrowed options and limited information).

A question occurred to me while reading through evidence and testimony. A lot of talk of filthy conditions, untrained persons, and of course the trophy jars. It brings a question to mind, how many people that are appalled by this would be okay with it if it had occurred in a “professional” manner, meaning well trained people and sanitary conditions? Would “snipping” the spine of a born alive infant then be okay with them? I shudder to think about it, but I think I know the answer, and it makes me sick to my stomach.

This is like the Holocaust and we just found Auschwitz, how many more final solution centers are there at this level. Then there are the abortions that take place at before 3 months gestation and they are not any more tragic…

On another note, I would rather this man be accused of selling babies than killing them. At least you know desperate people willing to pay big money for a child like back in the 60’s would have likely given them a chance and hell I might be there to issue a check for one myself.

I do giant breed dog rescue all the time and I think the horrible things I see and hear are bad in that field…

Couldn’t read past the part about stabbing babies with scissors. Horror is not even the right word. There are no words.
RDE2010 on April 15, 2013 at 1:37 PM

.
Picture worth a thousand words. It is important everyone possible see the picture

Third picture from the top. Takes your breath away. The perfect looking babe, wispy hair plastered against the head, pink and tender, in the sad repose of death, seen closeup from the back, a pool of dark blood under the left ear from the slash in the neck that reveals the gap of the severed spine

This dear innocent creature, never allowed to breathe, or dream, or enjoy all the fruits of this God’s earth while the monsters hide the evidence

If our so called good people cannot look upon this baby and cry, they are evil craven cowards. That is what is happening now. The craven cowards want their way, and they will crush living babies to get it

Oh, they will cry for the victims of the Marathon bombing, but no tears for these babes who took a death so horrifying we do not offer it to condemned murderers

And then, flushed into garbage. Their remains cannot be made sacred, or the reality would be revealed to be unholy

…not to mention that the Michael Vick dog-fighting story got more coverage than Gosnell.
Owen Glendower on April 15, 2013 at 12:00 PM

yes
Animal cruelty makes my blood boil. I would give animal abusers the same penalties as if they abused a human. I would not do to an animal what happened to that baby

This is the clearest evidence of liberal media bias because it flies in the face of the logic they use to tell us why the stories they do push are newsworthy and of vital concern to we unwashed masses. The most innocent as victims (both mothers and infants), evidence of discrimination; white mothers got a special room (but all babies were murdered in an equal opportunity manner), jars of baby parts, (kept as gruesome souvenirs?) and of course the coup de grace, a self regulated industry that caused horrific deaths. How does a story get more newsworthy than that?